I wanna stick as much to canon as possible (I know several people just clicked away lol), and read some old interviews and tweets for the inspiration of what the characters would do once they got out of school. For example, I broke Bade up because Victoria Justice says she thinks they would have broken up once they graduated.
However, that's not to say I won't take some liberties with things. I wanna make this as realistic as possible and let's face it, some things about the show are just nawt realistic.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
II
Oh the spaces between us
Keep getting deeper
Getting harder to reach ya
Even though i try
Spaces - One Direction
Tori Vega is at a crossroads.
It's her second semester at UCLA, and she's doing well. But Mason and RCA Records want her to do more. Spend more time in the studio, spend more time building a name for herself.
It's hard doing that and making sure she has assignments in on time.
Andre has been a big help, helping her with both music and assignments when she needs him too. But she knows that a lot for him, because he has his own assignments, and is trying to get into the music industry himself.
Tori finds herself asking someone she never thought of for help - Trina.
Her older sister hadn't bothered with college, since she already sort of kinda has a job in the entertainment industry.
She meets Trina on her lunch break - she's never going back to the set of Trina's show - and Trina wants to go to a restaurant that's completely out of her price range. But the food is supposed to be really good, so they go anyways.
Trina comes thirty minutes after they agree to meet with an air of arrogance about her that's larger than the one she had in high school, if that's possible. She pushes her overly sunglasses back onto her head dramatically before she smiles at Tori as she sits across from her.
"Heyyy."
Tori glares at her. "I have been waiting for you!" she exclaims, and Trina waves a dismissive hand as she grabs a menu.
"Sorry, things on set ran late," she says offhandedly before she asks, "Should I get something with garlic? I don't wanna stink."
Tori rolls her eyes. "You know, I asked to meet because I need some advice." Tori tells her.
"Yeah, why couldn't you just ask me over text or something?" Trina wants to know.
Tori doesn't want to admit that she's actually missed her sister, as crazy as it sounds. She could see Trina anytime she wanted, with Trina still living at home with their parents, but she barely had time to think, let alone visit.
Instead Tori says, "Can we just order and talk?"
Trina complies, ordering something that without a doubt make her breath stink, and Tori orders a chicken salad. She allows Trina to ramble about the set and her weirdo director before their food comes. Once it does Trina starts stuffing her face, and Tori finally has a chance to speak.
"Trina, do you regret not going to college?"
The older Vega sister snorts. "Why would I?"
"Because mom and dad were disappointed when you didn't go." Tori reminds her.
"So? They ended up blowing through the money they saved for my tuition anyways." Trina responds with a shrug. "Plus they expect stuff like that from me. If you were to not go to college, oh man, they'd probably have matching aneurysms."
Tori feels her stomach swoop. That's one thing she's been afraid of, disappointing her parents. They knew she wanted to be a star and supported her dreams of course, but they also wanted her to have something to fall back on, in case it didn't work out.
Tori just knew she didn't need anything else to fall back on.
She didn't like to think that she was cocky or anything, but she was talented, and everyone who had met her had thought so. She wasn't cocky about her talent, she was confident; clear difference.
"I'm thinking about dropping out." Tori finds herself saying.
Trina's eyes widen slightly. "And what would you do?"
"Focus on music." Tori says. "Mason really wants me to make my album. And when I'm in the studio I'm worried about deadlines and papers I have to write and assignments I have to finish and when I'm in class I'm thinking about songs I need to write. I can't do both."
"Then drop out." Trina replies with a shrug.
"But mom and dad-"
"Will be disappointed, sure, but it's not like they're gonna disown you." Trina tells her. She stabs at her food before she says, "You know you can do no wrong in their eyes."
Tori plops some salad into her mouth for a moment, contemplating her sister's words. They've always been supportive of whatever she's wanted to do, even if it was something that deviates from what they thought she should be doing.
Trina was right they'd be disappointed for sure, but they would support her.
"The only thing is that I would have to move back home." Tori whines.
She's grown accustomed to being on her own in a dorm, and honestly, it was a lot better than living at home. Did she really want to go back to that?
"Yeah, that sucks for you." Trina says snootily. "I'm moving out in a couple weeks. I found a great place for super cheap."
Tori's eyes widen as she moves forward in her chair. "Trina! I could live with you!"
"Uh, it's a one bedroom." Trina tells her before she adds, "the other bedroom is for my shoes."
Tori blinks for a moment. "So you are getting a two bedroom apartment? Oh Trina please let me stay with you! I'll-i'll help out with rent, whatever you need! I just do not want to go back home with mom and dad Trina please."
Trina looks at her for a moment before she shrugs a shoulder. "I'll think about it."
Tori grins. She knows that she and her sister have their issues, but she also knows that when push comes to shove, she can count on Trina.
Sometimes.
—
Cat sits in the chair of the office her legs bouncing excitedly. She's meeting with someone important! That's what Sam and Gunther said anyways. Gunther isn't here, he's in school, but Sam is, she's walking around the room, looking at stuff.
"Hey, this would go for a pretty penny on the web." she comments, holding up a statue.
Cat knows what Sam means, that she wants to take something that doesn't belong to her, and that's bad! She points a finger at her. "Put that down!" she scolds, and Sam narrows her eyes but does what she says.
The blonde sighs as she plops down in the chair besides Cat. "I'm bored. Where are these people anyways?" she asks as he puts her feet up on the desk. "They better bring some food. Mama is hungry."
"I hope they have bibble." Cat says dreamily. She hasn't had bibble in such a long time. She misses bibble.
"The last thing you need is bibble." Sam tells her as she leans back in the chair. "I could go for some fried chicken right now though."
Cat doesn't have a chance to respond, because the door opens and a fancy dressed man walks in, a nice smile on his lips. He's handsome, and Cat finds herself giggling and looking away from him.
Sam narrows her eyes at her, clearly wntin to know why Cat is giggling, but she doesn't say anything as the man moves around the desk and sits down.
"Hi Miss Valentine. My name is Sonny Waterer." he says, and even the way he says it makes Cat feel all fluttery. She giggles again.
"Stop doing that." Sam barks out.
The man laughs. "I can see why the kids like you." he says, and Cat starts to giggle again, only for Sam to reach over and pinch her.
"Owey!"
The man chuckles as he leans back in the chair. "Well, I guess I should tell you why you're here." he says.
"That would be ideal."Sam quips.
He glances in Sam's direction quickly before he looks back at Cat. "Well, you have a lot of fans on Splashface. Five million followers in under a year is pretty insane, you know that right?"
Cat nods. "My brother is called insane all the time." she tells him.
Sonny's brow furrows for a moment before he shakes his head. "Anyway, we here at the Dingo Channel wanna expand that fame. We saw on your channel that you could sing, and I know you went to Hollywood Arts, so I'm sue you could do some more serious acting. So, we were thinking, maybe you'd like to bring some of your popularity here."
"What does she get out of it?" Sam questions. "She's not just gonna be your cash cow."
"And I would never expect her to be." the man says with a small smile in her direction. "Here at the Dingo Channel, we take care of our talent. Cat, you will always be taken care of."
Cat likes the sound of always being taken care of. "What do I have to do?" she asks.
Sonny smiles as he reaches into his desk. "Well, the only thing you'd have to do is sign some paperwork, and then we could get started."
Sam holds up a finger. "Shouldn't we get that looked at by a layer or something? Mama knows that you don't sign anything without a lawyer present. I learned that from going to juvie."
Sonny's expression changes at that. "You've been in juvie?"
"Yup." Sam says, popping the P.
Sonny furrows his brows before he rubs the back of his neck. "Well uh, yes, you could look it over with your lawyer if you have one. It'll make the process a little slower, but I don't mind."
Cat furrows her brows. "I mind!" Cat shouts as she turns to look at Sam. "I don't wanna wait!"
"The grown ups are talking." Sam says dismissively as she waves her hand. She leans across the desk and motions her hand. "Let me see those papers."
Sonny raises an eyebrow before pointedly handing them over to Cat. "Miss Valentine look them over. You'll see that everything is legit. You can give us a call when you're ready."
"She will." Sam says, taking the papers from Cat and standing up. "Come on cupcake, let's go."
Cat swallows as she follows Sam out. She doesn't say anything until they get outside.
"Why were you acting like that?" Cat whines.
Sam sighs as she turns towards Cat. "I wasn't acting a certain way, okay? I just… I want to make sure this is actually a good thing for you. I heard some crazy things about contracts."
Cat pouts. "I wanna sign it now."
Sam nods as she folds the papers up and puts them in her coat. "As soon as we go over them and we figure out they're good, then you'll sign them and make a ton of money. Promise kid."
Cat has every reason to trust Sam. she's never done anything to hurt her, besides going after Robbie that one time. But other than that, Sam has done everything she can to protect Cat, so she'll take her advice on this.
"Kay kay."
Jade throws her bider in her bag as the time gets closer and closer to 3:50 PM, meaning it's the end of class. The professor narrows his eyes at her, clearly annoyed.
Like she should care.
Once it's 3:50 she stands and leaves, even though her professor isn't done speaking.
She pulls out her phone and looks at a few notifications she has.
A couple random texts from Cat talking about god knows what, some notifications from her Splashface page, and another text from her roommate telling her that she's going to have guest and she would appreciate if Jade stayed away for awhile.
Jade laughs out loud at that. Her roommate, Paige, is a peppy strawberry blonde that hates Jade just as much as Jae hates her. She's always inviting her equally peppy dancer friends to their rooms, and they're a bit scared of Jade, as they should be.
And Jade could use the entertainment, so she definitely will be heading back to her dorm.
"Hey!"
Jade keeps walking because she doesn' think they're referring to her. But then she feels a hand on her elbow. Her hand goes back on its own accord, and connects with her assailants face.
"Never touch me." she barks as she turns and sees it's some guy from her class. He sits right behind her, not that she pays that much attention to him. She's pretty sure his name is Kieran.
He's clutching his cheek with the same hand that's holding a very familiar looking notebook.
"So first you rob me then you attack me!?" she growls, snatching the notebook back from him.
"No! I just, you left your notebook in class so I was just giving it back to you." he explains as he holds his hand out. "I'm Kieran."
She was right. As usual.
"I don't care." she tells him, turning around and walking away from him. She thinks for a moment that he's going to follow her, and she's already preparing insults in her head, but she just heard him call out,
"See you in class!"
Okay then. It's not like she wanted him to follow her anyways.
Jade makes her way to her way to her dorm, thinking about the various assignments she has to do. She has a couple of things due on Monday that she had not started yet.
When she gets there, her roommate narrows her eyes at her.
"Jade!" she exclaims with a sugary sweet smile that does not match the look in her eyes. She walks over to her, and that smile drops. "What are you doing here?"
"You know Paige, you are wasting your time being a dancer considering you're not very good at it." Jade tells her. "You should be an actress, you're much better at that."
Paige flares her nostrils in a way that never fails to make Jade chuckle. She's so easy to annoy.
"I told you not to come back to the dorm." Paige reminds her.
Jade nods as she moves past her, making sure her shoulder bumps into hers. "Yeah, I got your text. I decided to ignore it." she tells her as she makes her way to her bedroom, slamming her door behind her. She stops her backpack onto the ground and pulls out her phone, taking her time to actually read the texts from Cat.
And then she grabs her laptop and Skypes her.
"JADEY!" Cat shouts as soon as they connect, and it makes Jade grit her teeth. God, she hates that nickname. And she can't even threaten Cat properly to make her stop using it.
"What do you mean you had a meeting at the Dingo Channel?" Jade asks, getting right to the point.
"You didn't ready my texts?" Cat asks, a pout forming on her lips.
"I did. And they were riddled with so many typos I didn't even try to decode them. So just tell me what happened."
"Okay! So-"
"And leave out any stories about your brother."
Cat's mouth shuts momentarily before she says, "I'll try."
Cat goes into details but the meeting, how successful her Splashface videos were and how they wanted to expand her platform, how Sam was ith her, and how this guy at the Dingo Channel gave her a contract to go over. Jade was genuinely happy for her best friend, though she would never admit that Cat was her best friend.
"That's really cool Cat." the brunette tells her redheaded friend.
Cat smiles happily before it turns into a slight frown. "I wanted to sign the contract there but Sam wouldn't let me. She says we need to make sure it's legit. But why wouldn't it be? It's not the fake Dingo Channel, it's the real one."
Jade loves her friend, truly, she does, but there's a lot about Cat that she cannot stand. Her naivety is one of them.
"Well, I agree with Sam. I think that it's good you didn't sign it right away. There might be something in there that you don't like." Jade explains slowly, like she's talking to a five year old. And most of the time, mentally, Cat is just that.
Cat pouts and crosses her arms across her chest. "Of course you agree with Sam."
Jade rolls her eyes. She had forgotten how jealous Cat is of her friendship with the blonde, like she's not the reason they're friends in the first place.
"I think you should just make sure that everything in the contract is what you really want." Jade tells Cat.
The ditzy girl shrugs as she plays with the ends of her hair. "I don't see why there wouldn't be anything that I want. Sonny seems so nice."
"Anyone named Sonny Waterer is not to be trusted." Jade says with a shake of her head. "That's such a meteorologists name and meteorologists lie."
Cat blinks. "You think he's made up of rocks?"
It's Jade's turn to blink. "What?"
"Meteorites! They're the space rocks, right? So a meteorologist would be like, a person made a space rocks. Oh my god do you think Sonny is an alien? One time, my brother found and aleins and he-"
"CAT!" Jade barks, and the redhead simply pouts.
"Whatey?"
"Stop talking."
Cat rolls her eyes and mutters something under her breath that sounds a lot like bossy.
Jade rolls her eyes before she says, "Whatever, I just wanted to tell you that you getting on the Dingo Channel is pretty cool, so I'm gonna go now."
"WAIT!" Cat exclaims, and Jade pauses. "Don't hang up. We have to talk about stuff."
"What stuff?" Jade questions.
"Best friend stuff." Cat says in almost conspiring tone.
Jade narrows her eyes at her friend. She knows Cat pretty well, and she knows that right now Cat is just trying to keep her on the line.
It's annoying, but Jade would be lying if she said she didn't miss Cat, so she obliges.
"Fine. What do you wanna talk about?"
Cat grins, and starts rambling about whatever comes to mind. Jade allows the distracted Cat to ramble on as she pulls out her phone and looks through Splashface. She likes a post of Andre's talking about how he was halfway through a paper when he realized that he was writing song lyrics into the paper.
She'll never relate to that.
"Jadey!" Cat says loudly, making Jade look up from her phone.
"What!?"
"I said how is New York?" Cat asks.
"Loud, crowded, and cold." Jade deadpans.
Cat scrunches up her nose. "It doesn't sound very fun." she muses.
"I'm not here for fun, I'm here for school." Jade reminds her.
"School was fun." Cat argues.
"It was Hollywood Arts, that was more of a fever dream than anything else." Jade says with a shrug. Sometimes looking back at her high school experience, she can't believe half the things that happened. And that people allowed them to happen.
"Well Broadway is fun." Cat says as she cocks her head to the side. "You should be on Broadway Jadey."
"Kinda busy with school." Jade curtly replies. "Speaking of, I have some homework to do so I'll call you later okay bye." Jade says, hanging up before Cat can argue.
She sighs as she runs a hand through her dark brown hair.
She hasn't told Cat that other than a play that she did for the school, Jade hasn't been able to spread her creative wings since being in New York.
She's auditined, oh she has auditioned so many times that she was quite frankly getting sick of the whole process, especially when she wasn't hearing anything back.
She thought that once she graduated from Hollywood Arts things would change. She would be away from Tori Vega and her annoying perfectness, and she would finally be able to show the entertainment world who Jade West is.
But she hasn't. Because the world isn't interested.